{"id":4635,"date":"2024-02-08T11:33:17","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T11:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/?p=4635"},"modified":"2024-02-08T11:33:22","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T11:33:22","slug":"river-cess-community-seeks-to-cancel-logging-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/2024\/02\/08\/river-cess-community-seeks-to-cancel-logging-contract\/","title":{"rendered":"River Cess Community Seeks To Cancel Logging Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Top: Logs EJ&J Logging Company abandoned in the Ziadue & Teekpeh Community Forest. The DayLight\/Esau J. Farr<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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By Esau J. Farr<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
ZAMMIE TOWN \u2013 Villagers in River Cess County have made efforts to cancel a contract it has with a logging company over unpaid benefits and unfulfilled promises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
EJ&J Investment Corporation signed a 15-year contract with Ziadue & Teekpeh in 2018. However, five years after logging in the 24,649-hectare forest, the company has failed to live up to the agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe community said [it is] not willing to work with EJ&J again and therefore has decided to cancel its contract,\u201d said Philip Tarweah, chief officer of Ziadue & Teekpeh\u2019s community forest management body (CFMB). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
EJ&J owes the community more than US$72,000 for land rental, harvesting, scholarships and clinic support funds, according to our calculations as of November last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
EJ&J failed to construct 16 handpumps and pit latrines each within major towns of the Kploh Chiefdom, where the forest lies. It also did not construct the two schools it promised the community. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the last three years, Ziadue & Teekpeh has made several failed attempts to get their benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a June 21, 2021 letter obtained by The DayLight, the community sought a meeting with the company the following month. However, EJ&J did not honor the invitation, according to the townspeople.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The parties finally met three months after and the company promised eight handpumps in five months but has not delivered for more than a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stanley Whilzar, EJ&J\u2019s general coordinator, blames his company\u2019s failure on the coronavirus outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen it comes to the pit latrines, the elementary schools\u2026, when we entered the first and second years [it was] when we experienced the COVID-19,\u201d Whilzard said. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t lay our hands on those projects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whilzar\u2019s remarks are not backed by facts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Records of the FDA show EJ & J, harvested 2,150 logs or 13,275 cubic meters of logs from 2020 to 2021, during the height of the pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is no evidence that EJ&J declared force majeure to suspend its operations and debts.\u00a0 No logger company did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018\u2026More logs in the forest\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The DayLight photographed several large piles of logs EJ&J abandoned in the forest for more than two years. The logs were scattered on both ends of the grassy road that leads to the community forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAbraham Wizard, a member of the leadership of Ziadue & Teekpeh Community Forest in River Cess. The DayLight\/Carlucci Cooper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
A former worker of the company, who asked for anonymity for fear of reprisal, pointed at several locations in the forest where he said logs were. Villagers corroborated the ex-worker\u2019s story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey have felled more logs into the forest, more than 10,000 logs. They are just wasting there,\u201d said Abraham Wizard, a forest leader in Ziadue & Teekpeh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
EJ&J production records appear to support Wizard and other townspeople\u2019s comments. Not one of the 2,150 logs it harvested during COVID-19 has been exported, the records show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have been informing the company and FDA but they are not doing anything about it,\u201d Wizard added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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